Protests
There is a new blog post entitled, “The authoritarian populist president embraces neoconservatism–to advance his own tyranny.”
One might note, in addition, that the #NeverTrump movement is mostly a neoconservative enterprise. Would Donald Trump or his team seek to split that vote? I’m guessing, yes.
Julian Borger, “Trump consults Bush torture lawyer on how to skirt law and rule by decree,” Guardian, July 20, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/20/trump-john-yoo-lawyer-torture-waterboarding
Nick Miroff and Mark Berman, “Trump threatens to deploy federal agents to Chicago and other U.S. cities led by Democrats,” Washington Post, July 20, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/defending-portland-crackdown-trump-pledges-to-deploys-feds-to-chicago-and-other-us-cities-led-by-democrats/2020/07/20/fda42b8a-caaa-11ea-89ce-ac7d5e4a5a38_story.html
The car
I’m updating this here:
- I barely notice the automatic transmission on the Nissan Sentra now. I still prefer the continually variable transmission on the Camry Hybrid; my complaint with automatic transmissions has long been that it seems like they are too often in the wrong gear, even when they are in the correct gear, it often feels wrong or at least not quite right, and that they oscillate between gears.
- The Sentra has better acceleration than the 2007 Camry Hybrid.
- The 2007 Camry Hybrid has a better keyless entry system that the somewhat more recent (I haven’t figured out what year, but it’s a rental) Sentra. With the Sentra, I always have to push a button on the handle. With the Camry Hybrid, I just grab the hande—a sensor is on the inside, so in combination with the presence of the fob, it knows to unlock the door.
- The Sentra has a USB port suitable for keeping my cell phone charged. I finally found it last evening.
- I really like the regenerative braking on the Camry Hybrid. I guess it’s hard to trust friction brakes when I have experience with brakes that actually charge the hybrid battery. With the automatic transmission on the Sentra, I’m sometimes fighting the motor to brake.
- The Camry Hybrid has about 200 miles more range on a tank of gas. This was nice coming across country. It’s vital when driving for Uber or Lyft.
- The Sentra has a back-up camera with a twist I hadn’t seen before: When backing, and when steering while backing, the trace bends to show the path the car will take when backing. Even if I replace the sound system on the Camry Hybrid and get a backup camera with it (the car lacks any such thing now), I won’t get this.
- Yeah, I really like having a sound system with the Sentra. It’s something I badly miss with the Camry Hybrid, whose sound system—even the supposedly superior JVC system—is simply atrocious. This can be fixed and if the car survives this episode, I may very well do that.
Overall, my preference remains strongly with hybrids. Which has implications both for my car purchasing decisions in the future and, really, since I’m having difficulty finding a hybrid mechanic who is both honest and professional (the dealers here aren’t) in Pittsburgh, where I move, if I move, next year.